BMW i8: Why the bold BMW had to die

But the best thing about driving the i8 is how well matched the chassis is to the powertrain. It doesn’t feel overpowered so you’re not always on the brakes, spoiling the rhythm of the road. But nor does it feel like it could do with another 200bhp: its tyres are unfashionably slender, which is another reason it feels so good. It is baby bear’s porridge: not too hot, not too cold, but just right.

But then there’s this whole other way I’ll miss it and, in fact, it is this rather more cerebral fondness that makes its departure something truly to regret. For with the i8, BMW revealed to the world a way forward at least for a certain kind of car. A way where your car still gets to go hard and sound good. A way where it’s actually even better to drive because it is so damn light. A way where you can have your cake yet not get fat: a supercar that’ll do 40mpg almost however you drive it.

And the world’s response? “A BMW with a six-figure price and a three-cylinder engine from a Mini? You’re kidding, right?” I admire BMW so much for having the courage to do this car and that bravery deserved far better than this. I imagine the deep breaths taken around the boardroom table when the plan for this carbon-framed, aluminium-clad mid-engined masterpiece was signed off. It would have been hideously expensive to develop. They’d have known that, bar a convertible, there was no other car they’d be able to spin off the same platform. But they went ahead and did it anyway because it was the right car to do.

How were they to know that even by the 2020s, it would still be the wrong time to do it? Seems nuts, doesn’t it? If I were to sit down and specify a less unsustainable kind of long-distance driver’s car for our era, the only reason it wouldn’t look like this is because I’m not smart enough to have thought of it. Yet BMW is getting rid of it while, at the same time, launching the M8 Competition, another similarly priced 2+2 coupé but one that weighs nearly two tonnes and is powered by a twin-turbo V8 engine.

But you can’t blame BMW for the death of the i8. It had six years in the marketplace, so they gave it a decent run and it’s not their fault the world proved resistant to the sea change it represented.

Even so, the real source of my sadness is that if BMW did replace it, I think its successor would stand a very good chance indeed. We live in a completely different world from that into which the i8 was born and, in one more generation’s time, there will be no more two-tonne V8s. But there will be plenty of lightweight coupés with downsized hybrid powertrains because, with pure EVs, those are the only cars of this type that are going to survive the transition that is so swiftly coming our way.

Sure, some issues would have needed to have been addressed – more luggage room and a more special interior among them – but these are relative details. With a few years’ development, a new i8 would have more power, go further on electrons alone and use less fuel. It’d be even more relevant and then the world would finally wake up to the wonders within.

But now it won’t get that chance. And what can we learn from this? That even producing one of the most advanced, interesting, attractive and effective cars of its time is no guarantee of success. The lesson of the i8 story is to try less hard, take fewer risks and do less well. And that’s what is saddest of all.

Buying an i8

The i8 seems to be an exceptionally robust car, with occasional electronic niggles reported and not much else. Remember that depreciation is vertiginous in the first year but flattens out rapidly after that, so a nearly new example is an even better bet than usual. Consider whether the roadster is really worth the extra premium – I’d have the coupé all day long – and remember the car’s flaws: minimal rear room, a tiny boot and doors that mean you always have to park in a space where no one can park too close next to you.

What about the BMW i3?

Although the i8 is dead, happily BMW’s ‘i’ adventure is not, but it seems that in future it will make only electric cars. First is the iX3, a Jaguar I-Pace and Audi E-tron rival coming this year, followed by an BMW BMW i4 next year, a car with Tesla’s Model 3 in its sights.

For now, though, there is the trusty i3, launched before even the i8 and, for now at least and despite rumours of its imminent demise, apparently safe from the executioner’s axe. For while it has never been a strong seller – anything but, in fact – sales have increased every single year since it went on sale in 2013, helped by changing attitudes, increasingly tax-friendly legislation, a couple of well-timed technology upgrades and closely controlled pricing.

And if it can be made to fit your life and you don’t mind its highly alternative appearance, I think there remains a strong case for the i3. It’s quick, it’s fun and the interior still feels fresh and modern. Just remember that the range-extender model is no longer on sale so you’ll have to put up with either a pure EV or find a REX on the used market.

How much for an i8 today?

2015 i8 Coupe - £42,000, 38,000 miles: You could probably haggle your way into an i8 for less than £40k now, which makes an older car sound incredibly cheap. But the real value is in newer models.